Hundreds of baboons are allegedly being killed by people who consider them to be a nuisance. We need to take action to better ensure these beautiful animals are saved.

Chacma baboons are very common in Cape Town, South Africa. Because they are opportunistic feeders, they have been known to steal food from the residences of citizens and even from citizens themselves. Despite this occurring, both tourists and tourist operators reportedly continue to feed these animals to try and see them up close. Doing so has only proven to exacerbate the problem and further has caused government officials to approve the trapping and killing of the chacma baboons they find to be most menacing–dominant males. Contrarily, people are still having the same problem five years later.

Unfortunately, killing these male baboons is causing less dominant males to take over animal troops and to eat weaker offspring. If this pattern continues, chacma baboons will likely soon be extinct.

Tell officials to patrol heavily populated tourist areas and to enforce laws that prohibit people from feeding baboons. They do not deserve to die because they are being fed by people who want to get a closer look.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Mayor Lille,

Because chacma baboons are considered to be menacing to the citizens of Cape Town, South Africa, they are being brutally trapped and killed. To prevent these animals from being wiped out, the killing of these animals needs to stop and laws made to prevent people from feeding them must be enforced.

While it is true that chacma baboons are bothersome to citizens because they steal food from residences and even people, it is also true that this behavior would be greatly mitigated if tourists and tourist operators did not feed these animals. Doing so has made it so government officials agree that the dominant males should be killed, and–in turn– has made the problem worse. In fact, people are still having the same problem years later. Just as bad, taking this action has proven to greatly diminish the number of these animals since younger male baboons take over once the dominant males are killed and eat their offspring.

For these reasons, I encourage you to have your police patrol tourist areas often and to strictly enforce laws that prevent people from feeding these animals. Killing them is not solving the problem, and people who are feeding them are only making matters worse.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo credit: Arno Meintjes

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